The present invention relates to item processing, and is particularly directed to a method of processing items in a check processing system and an apparatus therefor.
A typical check has a number of fields including a courtesy amount field, a legal amount field, a payor field, a payee field, a date field, and a signature field. The check may be of the personal type or of the business type. A known way to extract data from the check is to use a combination of image processing techniques and recognition techniques. The check is typically moved past an image processing device such as a scanner to obtain a digitized image of the check. The digitized image of the check is then stored in memory.
Data contained in the courtesy amount field or data contained in the legal amount field is usually recognized from the digitized image of the check. More specifically, handwritten or machine-printed characters contained in the courtesy amount field or the legal amount field is located prior to being subjected to a handwriting or character recognition engine at a subsequent operation. The recognition engine applies recognition techniques to the located characters to establish the amount of the check.
Data contained in other fields of the check is sometimes recognized from the digitized image of the check. For example, characters contained in the payee field of the check may be located and subsequently recognized. From time to time, handwritten characters contained in the payee field of the check may be difficult, if not impossible, for the recognition engine to recognize. It would be desirable to improve recognition of characters contained in the payee field of the check, especially when the characters are handwritten and are more difficult for the recognition engine to recognize.